Making a good scientific presentation takes time, but awareness of common mistakes is the first step to improving performance.
Guest contributor David Rubenson
The slide presentation has become the most ubiquitous form of scientific communication and it is causing havoc. Scientists spend enormous amounts of time preparing presentations, travelling to conferences to deliver them, and listening to them almost every day. But most scientists simply aren’t very good at them – we should change that.
David Rubenson
I previously argued that this problem underlies a significant communication crisis in research. As I’ve learnt as a scientific presentation coach at Stanford, there’s a broad understanding of this problem, but insufficient incentive for the time-intensive training many scientists need. Still, following simple lists of “dos” and “don’ts” is a great way to improve presentation skills.
In that spirit, and to supplement an earlier list of eight positive suggestions, here’s a David Letterman-like countdown of the 10 biggest pitfalls in creating and delivering a scientific presentation:
